Former Commerce Secretary warns of AI disruption to job market
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Gina Raimondo, former US commerce secretary, at a Bloomberg event earlier this month. Photo: Prakash Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former Biden administration Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warns the U.S. is unprepared for the job disruption AI could bring.
Why it matters: Citing inaction in Congress, Raimondo says she is using her new nonprofit Raise Us to urge state governments to begin experimenting with solutions to their safety nets and workforce training.
- Raimondo spoke to Axios about this issue during a visit to Duke University this week.
- She said she's already held conversations with officials in the state, including Gov. Josh Stein. A spokesperson for Stein confirmed the two have talked.
What they're saying: "The change that AI could bring to workers is going to be way faster than our current workforce and safety net systems," she told Axios. "So, I just thought we got to get on this. We can't sit around and wait for the crisis. Let's start trying things now."
Reality check: It's unclear whether AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates. But anxiety about potential job losses is growing, especially among young people, according to Pew Research.
- Raimondo says she routinely hears those concerns from her friends and college-aged children.
Driving the news: Raimondo, a former governor of Rhode Island, formed Raise Us with former Indian Gov. Eric Holcomb earlier this year to take on the topic of AI disruption to workers. It has raised more than $700 million, according to Raimondo, including from some of the largest AI companies, like Anthropic, and large corporations like Charlotte-based Bank of America.
- The nonprofit plans to fund state pilot programs focused on unemployment support and workforce training. It is already working with Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland and Utah.
- It also wants to work with large employers to develop apprenticeships and incentives to retrain workers instead of laying them off.
Zoom in: In Maryland, it is helping expand the state's Service Year Option, which pays adults and places them in roles to get real-world job experience.
- But one of its biggest goals is to kick-start conversations around things like reforming unemployment insurance and adding wage insurance to help workers who take lower-paying jobs rather than dropping out of the workforce entirely.
What they're saying: "We don't want people to be long-term unemployed, so the concept would be you take that job and then the government will provide some supplement on top of the lower income," she said, adding Raise Us would fund a pilot of the idea.
- "If you're out of work for like a year and a half," she added, "chances are you're out of work for years." So Raise Us' programs are designed to counter that likelihood.
The big picture: Raimondo says now is the time to experiment with different policies before states are reacting to a crisis.